Adam Dingwell was never supposed to attempt 63 passes last weekend, San Diego State offensive coordinator Bob Toledo said Tuesday night.

“We threw way too many passes, I would never have dreamed that we’d throw that many passes,” Toledo said, adding that the plan was to run 30 pass plays and 45 run plays for a total of about 75 snaps.

Of course that’s not how it worked out against Eastern Illinois, when the Aztecs ran 99 offensive plays as the opponent dictated the pace and beat them 40-19.

“It was obvious that we were out of sync,” Toledo said. “When we’re out of sync, (we) end up having to throw the ball way too much, (getting) in the two-minute drill way too much. We just didn’t capitalize on opportunities.”

The goal is to revert back to a more balanced offensive scheme this weekend against Ohio State (No. 2 USA Today Coaches Poll, No. 3 AP Poll) – a team that Toledo said is frighteningly well rounded defensively.

“They’re really good. There’s a reason why they’re one of the top two teams in the country,” Toledo said. “They don’t have a weakness. It’s going to be a very tough, physical football game. But we’ve got to go compete.”

Toledo said the team and coaches have taken a good, hard look at everything that went wrong last week.

The Aztecs struggled to establish the running game against the Panthers, and that was compounded by tailback Adam Muema’s ankle injury.

Losing their 1,458-yard rusher in the second quarter “hurt us a lot,” Toledo said. “He’s a big-play running back. It took some of our running game away.”

By the beginning of the fourth quarter, the Aztecs were down 26-19 and were really forced to take to the air.

That took the Aztecs out of their element and Dingwell went 11-of-30 and threw two interceptions in the fourth quarter alone.

Dingwell’s final stat line – 27-of-63 for 318 yards, with four INTs, three fumbles and four sacks – was pretty ugly, but Toledo said it wasn’t all the quarterback’s fault.

His receivers dropped eight passes and the offensive line didn’t always manage to keep him from getting hit.

“He didn’t have a lot of time to throw the football, and most quarterbacks aren’t very good when they don’t have time to throw the football,” Toledo said.

Still it all goes back to sticking with their offensive identity: the Aztecs aren’t built to throw the ball 60 times a game.

“I think the thing is that (Dingwell) can manage a game real well, but I don’t think we need to put all the game on his shoulders,” Toledo said. “Hopefully if we get in games where it’s a different situation and he doesn’t have to carry the team on his shoulders, maybe he manages the game better and the passes are completed instead of intercepted.”

Rocky Long said this week that the coaches will help Dingwell by having him run the play called by Toledo instead of giving him the freedom to change the play at the line of scrimmage.